Is a backpack a better design for a wearable artificial kidney than a belt?

An abstract presented at the American Society of Nephrology’s 2016 Kidney Week suggests that a backpack-like wearable artificial kidney (WAK) device, with rear and vertical arrangement, would offer more space for the components and cause less discomfort for the patient than a belt-like or jacket-like design. “With a backpack design, hemodialysis patients would use their own personal device only, in which all the disposable components could be replaced as a unique cartridge, designed to be extremely easy to fit and dispose,” the researchers from the Nephrology, Dialysis and Transplantation, International Renal Research Institute of Vicenza in Italy wrote in their abstract. “Furthermore, the backpack shape can be re-arranged into a “sleep station” to perform night treatments as well.”

What do you think of idea? Should developers working on a WAK consider testing a backpack prototype?

Nephrology News & Issues covers the latest developments in nephrology and provides a forum for the exchange of ideas among the professional disciplines responsible for delivering care to the ESRD patient.